Wheel of QB (mis)fortune spins around San Diego, Chargers

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady answers questions during a news conference on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012, in Indianapolis. The Patriots are scheduled to face the New York Giants in NFL football Super Bowl XLVI on Feb. 5. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

/ AP

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady answers questions during a news conference on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012, in Indianapolis. The Patriots are scheduled to face the New York Giants in NFL football Super Bowl XLVI on Feb. 5. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady answers questions during a news conference on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012, in Indianapolis. The Patriots are scheduled to face the New York Giants in NFL football Super Bowl XLVI on Feb. 5. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey) (/ AP)

Tom Brady never played for the Chargers. Peyton Manning never played for the Chargers. Eli Manning was drafted — for effect — by the Chargers. And yet, when discussing quarterbacks here this week, the arrow somehow points to San Diego.

Peyton isn’t even a part of Super Bowl XLVI. His brother Eli is. But because big brother made his bones in this host city and his future here is very much in doubt, Peyton remains a dominant thread in this tapestry. If the media horde complains too much about all the Peyton Manning questions, it should quit asking them.

It was Peyton of course who might have been a Charger when the 1998 draft rolled around. The Colts, drafting first, were torn between Manning and Ryan Leaf. Club President Dean Spanos insists he had conversations with Colts football guys late the night before the draft, just to find out which way they were leaning (it didn’t matter to him), and they told him they still were uncertain. No reason not to tell him the truth because he couldn’t do anything about it.

We all know how that turned out.

“We were split right down the middle on Manning and Leaf, and that’s a fact,” says Brian Billick, who coached the Ravens to the Super Bowl XXXV title and served as Vikings offensive coordinator in 1998. “Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. There were thoughts around the league that Manning had topped out and Leaf had much more upside.”

Eli and daddy Archie made it clear they wanted no part of San Diego, which held the No. 1 spot in the 2004 draft. Chargers General Manager A.J. Smith drafted him anyway, then traded him to the Giants for the fourth overall pick, which happened to be Philip Rivers.

We all know how that turned out.

Rivers has been terrific, but Eli plays for his second ring Sunday. And quarterbacks ultimately are judged by their jewelry.

Then there’s New England’s Tom Brady. Mike Riley, Chargers coach in 2000, begged then-GM Bobby Beathard to use the first of his three sixth-round choices on Brady. Beathard declined.

We all know how that turned out.

Brady has three rings, twice has been NFL and Super Bowl MVP, and if he and the Patriots defeat New York Sunday, he will join Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw as the only quarterbacks to win four.

And, if he’s not there already, he’ll be in the pantheon of quarterbacks, right near the top. The best ever? Not quite, but there’s no question he’s the best quarterback of this millennium, better than Peyton, who has won a Super Bowl but lost too many big games.

I often wonder what would have happened if the Chargers had drafted Brady with that sixth pick. Knowing these guys, they may have cut him. The Patriots didn’t.

Patriots coach Bill Belichick was much too smart for that. But for all of Belichick’s skills, it’s highly doubtful he would have won one Super Bowl had Brady not fallen into his hoodie pocket.

Perhaps no quarterback has had a greater presence than Brady. Admiral Halsey once said: “When in command, command!” And that’s Tom Brady. He’s never out of control. He has total field awareness. And there are times, as he was in the Pats’ divisional round playoff win over Denver when he’s as brilliant as he’s ever been.

He’s 34 now, Tom Brady is, but remains exceptional, and it’s hard to say any great quarterback has done what he’s done with such a different cast of receivers.

“Name a Hall of Famer he’s thrown to?” Billick asks.

Well, there’s Randy Moss, but you’ll have to do some spelunking in the Hall of Fame committee to find a voter who believes Moss will make it. Here are Brady’s starting wide receivers in the five Super Bowls (including Sunday): Troy Brown and David Patton, Brown and Deion Branch, Branch and David Givens, Moss and Wes Welker, and now Branch and Welker.

Only Elway, maybe, did as much with less.

“I don’t know, but I think Tom has gotten more competitive as he’s grown older,” says Hall of Fame receiver and former Chargers assistant James Lofton. “But you can see the urgency. There’s a fire in him. At practice yesterday, I don’t think a ball ever hit the ground.”

Brady is a perfectionist. Despite the victory over Baltimore in the AFC Championship Game, he was down on himself afterward for his performance, which was not Bradyesque.

“He’s always practicing hard,” Welker says. “You think you’re going to see more from him, but he’s always giving 110 percent, when we are out there at practice or anything. He’s always trying to perfect things. I wouldn’t say it’s any different than any other week. The guy brings it every week.”

Brady just goes to work. Brady knows how to win. In the end, he will be remembered as a quarterback who did just that.

“Honestly, I haven’t given any thoughts to any records or anything like that,” Brady says. “For me and for our team, it’s about this one game.”